


pushing through, I'll disregard the cost

by mollivanders



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-30
Updated: 2010-08-30
Packaged: 2017-10-30 11:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/331089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mollivanders/pseuds/mollivanders
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Veronica leaves for her summer internship not expecting Logan to disappear while she’s gone. For twelve weeks she calls her boyfriend and even while they have less to talk about Veronica rationalizes she’ll be home soon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	pushing through, I'll disregard the cost

**Author's Note:**

> **Title: pushing through, I'll disregard the cost**  
>  Fandom: Veronica Mars  
> Rating: PG  
> Characters: Veronica/Logan  
> Author's Note: Spoilers through S3. Word count - 1,035.  
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Veronica leaves for her summer internship not expecting Logan to disappear while she’s gone. For twelve weeks she calls her boyfriend and even while they have less to talk about Veronica rationalizes she’ll be home soon.

But after the first week of covertly scanning the cafeteria for any sign of Logan, she breaks down in a chance meeting with Dick and asks how Logan’s doing. Dick looks more distracted than usual (less complicated) and he brushes her off with a quick, “Logan dropped out. He’s travelling somewhere.”

Dick barely has the time of day for her but Veronica gets the message. Don’t go looking.

(She never had a good reaction to being blown off.)

Piz finds the file one autumn day when she’s more frustrated than usual at how Logan’s not leaving a paper trail and further annoyed her boyfriend (should be adorable, respectful and sweet boyfriend) is holding the manila folder marked _Logan_ with bored scribbles on the cover and asks her what she’s looking for. Veronica grabs the folder back and when Piz actually raises his voice at her, she sends him out.

She doesn’t call him and he doesn’t call her, and she guesses it’s over. She’s used to more explosive, vibrant endings to relationships (starts to understand what Logan meant about epic and writing songs). 

The paper trail is barely there, but she follows it anyway. Large amounts of cash withdrawn in Brazil, a wire transfer to Madrid, a three minute call from the Echolls estate to a small town in India. She tracks what she can and files it away (in a locked cabinet, this time) and pretends it doesn’t matter. She just wants to make sure he’s safe.

It’s an old instinct.

Once, she gets a picture of him off a traffic cam and when she checks the location her breath catches. _Mexico_. He’s so damn close, but Dick’s non-warning rings in her ears.

She’s the one who left him, after all.

It doesn’t stop her from driving to the border and ignoring Mac’s calls, because she couldn’t explain this to anyone if she tried. It’s been two years; she should be letting him go by now. All the same, knowing he’s that close and not knocking on her door to say hello irks her and she has to remind him about something.

Absently, she plays with Lily’s necklace around her neck and wonders if she should cut her losses, live the life that could have been.

It’s a small town outside Tijuana Veronica shouldn’t be in alone, but she’s upgraded from a taser to a gun and the rental car isn’t anything worth being stolen, so even when it gets late she keeps driving until she rolls up to the address with a week paid forward in large bills.

Sitting in her car she can see him sitting on the patio, an untouched beer sitting next to an empty glass, wearing dark sunglasses and half a day’s beard. He looks rougher, older, if not healthier, and she hasn’t decided if she’s getting out or turning around and destroying the file when his head cocks just a fraction.

He’s spotted her.

She actually still doesn’t know what to do so she just grips her steering wheel and counts to ten. If he ignores her, she’ll head home. If he doesn’t... her plan’s not that developed.

A knock on the passenger window startles her but she rolls it down before meeting his eyes.

“What are you doing here?” he asks, leaning in the car a little, arms crossed and an aggravated, if surprised, note in his voice. “Shouldn’t you be off learning how to catch the bad guys?”

“I have the summer off,” she quips and steadies her stare. “What are _you_ doing here?” she asks before he can take control again. “You’re a long way from the Neptune Grand.”

“Why don’t you come inside?” he says in lieu of an answer and Veronica licks her lips, stares back out at the road. She really shouldn’t.

His room is sparse – a single twin bed and a desk for writing, but no minibar or doormen waiting to take her bag. She drops it in the chair and sits on the bed next to him, notices the inside wall has a scorch mark peeling up from the floor below.

“They almost couldn’t salvage it,” Logan explained, “but it was all they had. So I helped out a bit. And now I stay here for free.”

“You haven’t stayed here,” she argues. “You’ve been… all over.”

“Of course,” he laughs. “How long did it take you, Veronica?” Stung, she opens her mouth for a retort but Logan cuts her off. “Dick told me. A week, huh? And what did Piz think of that?”

It’s a dim memory, one she doesn’t revisit often but he’s never heard it before. “He didn’t like it much,” she offers, pushes her fingers between his where they’re leaning on the bedspread. “But you did beat him up. I think he liked the payoff less.”

An envelope full of cash had shown up at Wallace and Piz’ dorm the night before they all left and Veronica wasn’t sure if she could forgive him for that. Either he was trying too hard or trying too little, and suddenly this trip seems like a terrible idea (pulling her fingers back she finds them trapped).

“Stay,” Logan mutters. “I missed you. And the food isn’t that bad, I swear.”

Chancing a look outside at the setting sun and the thought of the long drive home, Veronica relaxes her shoulders a little, leaves the matter of sleeping quarters until later. She hasn’t decided if two years of atonement are enough to forgive him yet.

“You swear?” she teases and pulls him up with her, their hands hanging loosely together until Logan pulls her closer to drop a silent kiss on her forehead.

“I missed you too,” she confides, pulls him closer when he tries to give her space. “I really, really missed you.”

Shutting the just-opened door, he leads her backwards and from the taste of liquor and smell of old pine, she forgets the rest for now (if only to forgive).

_Finis_


End file.
